Saturday, June 20, 2009

Lost ReWatch Week #3: Solitary, Raised by Another, All the Best Cowboys & Whatever the Case May Be

I realized after my last post that (thanks to a reminder from a comment from my friend Bonnie) I've seen these episodes so many times that I'm overlooking some major revelations during this rewatch. Apologies to those of you who are either new to Lost or are revisiting it for only the second time; I will attempt to point out more of the significant moments, events, statements, etc. from now on!Overall, I have to say that the S5 finale is throwing me for a loop because despite my best efforts, I can't help but now wonder exactly who had a hand in saving certain people and who was involved with critical, life-altering events that have taken place. Before S5, I was satisfied with the explanation that the island was THE answer to almost everything (that it healed, etc.), but now we have Jacob and NotLocke to factor into this vast equation.

Weekly ReWatch CaveatThere are 8 other sites participating in this project. In order to provide the most fresh and honest perspective here, I do not read the recaps and anaysis posted on my fellow ReWatch friends' sites until after I post my own. We all have different writing styles and are bound to experience similar epiphanies throughout this process. So if you come across any, please keep in mind that we've all seen these episodes multiple times and have analyzed them under relatively kindred microscopes for five years. Also...I am not perfect, nor is my memory; there are bound to be small mistakes here and there as I revisit and discuss all five seasons. So please excuse any errors in advance.

Here are some thoughts about this batch of four episodes...Solitary (Sayid-centric), Raised by Another (Claire-centric), All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues (Jack-centric) & Whatever the Case May Be (Kate-centric).Goosebump-Inducing Dialogue

Raised by Another

Hurley: The reason you were in Australia?Locke: I was looking for something.Hurley: So, did you find it?Locke: No, it found me.

Malkin (to Claire): It is crucial that you yourself raise this child. This child, parented by anyone else, anyone other than you...danger surrounds this baby. Your nature, your SPIRIT, your goodness...must be an influence in the development of this child. There is no happy life, not for this child, not without you. It can't be another (an other?). You mustn't allow another to raise your baby.

All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues

Boone: Are we LOST?Locke: No, we're not lost.Boone: I think we should GO BACK.Locke: Don't you feel it?Boone: Feel what?Locke: IT.

Whatever the Case May Be

Charlie: Maybe I should have died.

Loaded Titles

This particular batch of episodes featured titles that are far more meaningful and ripe for dissection after five seasons.

Raised by Another: could also refer to Ethan, who was Raised by an Other (born to Amy & Horace Goodspeed, trained by Alpert & Ben)

Whatever the Case May Be: in addition to the Marshal's case, we still don't know the contents of either Ben's case (hidden in the hotel vent off island) or Hurley's guitar case (given that it was provided by Jacob).

Pens!

Honestly, before the S5 finale I never paid much attention to the use and appearance of pens on Lost.

But after seeing Jacob give young James Ford a pen to finish his Dear Sawyer letter, I can't help but notice them now.

So when Claire seemed to take it as a sign to keep Aaron when several pens were conveniently out of ink as she was about to sign adoption papers...it stood out.

And when Christian insisted that Jack sign a falsified document covering up his old man's alcohol-related fatal mistake in the operating room, he was holding onto that pen as if his life depended on it. Turns out, it did. Jack signed it, changed his mind and turned his father in...setting off a series of events that led to Christian's death and arrival on the island.

Insert your fate vs. free will debate here.

Red Shirt Alert!

I had forgotten that in All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues, they actually addressed the genesis of the infamous redshirt.

Boone (to Locke): Ever watch Star Trek? The crew guys that would go down to the planet with the main guys, the captain and the guy with the pointy ears, they always wore red shirts. And they always got killed.

Typically on Lost, background extras are designated and referred to as redshirts. But then they changed the rules...Juliet. They donned and doomed my girl with a red shirt a few episodes before the S5 finale.

Talk about a red herring - Hurley was wearing a red t-shirt too!

Relationship Development

I have never been a Lost shipper (for the uninitiated...shipper is short for relationshipper; a fan who loves/roots for certain couples on shows and creates Brangelina type names, like 'Jater' for Jack & Kate). But I find myself much more appreciative of the flirtatious and dramatic beginnings of both Sawyer & Kate and Charlie & Claire. It was almost disconcerting to watch Kate and Sawyer smile and laugh as they discovered and then explored the waterfall.

Charlie's genuine concern and care for Claire is never more real than right before and then immediately after she is kidnapped.

And for the record, speaking as a member of Team Juliet...I do believe that Kate and Jack belong together, as did Saywer and Juliet; one con, one doctor each.

By the way, one of my favorite Lost relationships has been the friendship between Hurley and Charlie. That golf scene in Solitary and Hurley's hug in S3 before Charlie swam down to the Looking Glass station are tops in my book.

Significant Firsts

We meet Ethan Rom and Danielle Rousseau. (Solitary)

Sayid finds the cord on the beach that we later learn leads to the underwater Looking Glass station. (Solitary)

First mention of The Others. (Solitary)

Whispers are heard. (Solitary)

The Visual & The Visceral

First introduced in Whatever the Case May Be, Kate's beloved toy airplane is relatively significant....

The obvious - it represented Kate's fate and future.

That her childhood friend/love of her life Tom Brennan had this toy in his hand when Jacob visited young Kate is worth noting.

They buried it in a TIME capsule.

As soon as they dug it up, Tom was killed while trying to help Kate escape.

And although they are different, I was reminded of Jack's leaf plane from the pilot episode, as well as the Oceanic toy plane on the crib in Claire's dream and the one in Lapidus' fish tank in S4.

CHARLIE

Despite experiencing an unconventional, cold turkey drug rehab during his first weeks on the island, Charlie was unusually perceptive...

Raised by Another

To Claire (about her psychic's assurance that she & baby Aaron would be fine if they went to LA on flight 815): "Maybe he knew. You know, if he had the gift."

All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues

To Jack (after Ethan took Claire): "All THEY wanted was Claire."

DANIELLE ROUSSEAU

After Ben took Alex as a baby, Rousseau managed to co-exist with the Others on her own in the jungle for 16 years. After she captured Sayid, she told him that she had not seen anyone else on the island during that time. Do we really believe that Rousseau lived and roamed freely without threat from Smokey or the Others?

Sayid mentions that there are very challenging mathematical equations on the maps that he stole from Rousseau. My first thought was - Daniel Faraday. Given the time skips that we witnessed in S5, it seems possible that she stole those maps herself.

HURLEY

I forget - do we ever find out how and why Hurley received his real nickname?

LOCKE

I laughed out loud when Locke told Boone about his former occupation, "I made boxes." Sir Hunts-A-Lot wound up IN more boxes than he ever made.

Walt seemed to be able to stop the rain, and Locke was able to start it. Kill me now if someone asserts that they were NotLocke and Jacob at that time, respectively.

Immediately after Locke said "don't you feel it?" to Boone, they find the Swan hatch door. Score one for fate. Of course now that we've seen the Swan being built (and possibly destroyed by Jughead), the implications of that scene and discovery are far more important than the first time around.RICHARD MALKIN (Claire's psychic)

It is fascinating to rewatch Claire's experience and interaction with the psychic, now that we know that certain people were specifically brought to the island via 815. We didn't see Jacob visit Claire before the fight, but I am now wondering if both Malkin and Thomas (Aaron's baby daddy) were visited byJacob, Alpert or even Abaddon because both of them were instrumental in getting Claire on flight 815; they were clearly scared/paid off by someone.

Malkin: This is what MUST happen. It HAS to be this flight.

Remember that in Season 2 (?), Eko discovers that Malkin is indeed a fraud.

By the way, when Malkin referred to the potential adoptive couple in Los Angeles that he was sending Claire to see, he called them "good" people. So of course now I'm assuming that they're Dharma/Other related.

SAM AUSTEN (Kate's stepfather)

We know that Kate's dad was stationed in Kuwait during Desert Storm with Kelvin Inman (Desmond's future Swan hatch mate), whom we can now assume was on the island working for Dharma.

That fact, coupled with the following statement, leads me to believe that her father was also stationed on the island at one point.

Kate (about her dad): Being in the woods - it was like his religion.

If I had to guess, given his military background and age...Sam Austen probably served with young Charles Widmore.

WAAAAALT

Your wish is your command, special boy. While playing backgammon with Hurley, Walt wishes for double sixes and gets double sixes. He should have fleeced Hurley for more money.

Speaking of...too bad Walt didn't ask for his $20k from Hurley when he visited him at the mental institution. Pay up, Hugo!

Hint, Hint?

Many people are speculating that Lost may turn out to have been an alternate reality of sorts. I'm not quite on board with that theory just yet, but certain lines of dialogue may be interpreted as hints of such a possibility.

You'll find me in the next life, if not this one. (Nadia's note to Sayid)

See you in another life, brother. (Desmond to Jack & vice versa, Desmond to Jack, Dave to Hurley)

See you on the other side. (Ben to Jack, Anthony Cooper to Locke, Jack to Sayid, captain of the sub that Juliet/Kate/Sawyer were on)

In addition, it can be argued that certain scenes that were previously thought to be dream sequences may now be looked at in this light.

In White Rabbit, Jack sees his deceased father Christian alive and on the island.

In Raised by Another, Claire wakes up and she is not pregnant. She encounters Locke...but perhaps it was MysteryMan/NotLocke at that time (for those of you who believe that Aaron may be Jacob in an alternate reality, consider Locke's statement to Claire during this dream: "He was your responsibility but you gave him away. Everyone pays the price now.")

There are many more examples...but we haven't arrived there yet. As we rewatch the episodes, I will aim to address possible alternate realities presented in each.

William is so sweet and friendly that is it almost shocking to be reminded of just how menacing and creepy Ethan was when we first met him.

And I loved Andrea's performance in Solitary; Nadia's inadvertant reunion with Sayid under such brutal circumstances (when she was his prisoner) was intense, and I only wish we were treated to more time between the two in future episodes.

And as for Kate and Sawyer's waterfall discovery...we hiked up to that very location during the Lost tour in February (I was sporting an ill-advised red shirt). It was one of many 'wow' moments along the way that day.

As usual, I would love to hear what YOU thought about this group of episodes, so leave comments if you would like to share and discuss!

9 comments:

I like the idea of Kate's Dad being on the island too - it would be another cool thread in island tapestry.

I was thinking about how fun it was to see how all the relationships began - there is Hurley and Charlie (one of my faves too), the beginnings of the endless Kate/Jack/Sawyer triangle, Charlie and Claire, Sayid and Shannon - and on - which got me to thinking - every major character on the show formed bonds with at least one or more characters on the show - except for Locke. Every time he started to forge a connection with someone, the connection ended up failing (character died, moved off the island, or the relationship just imploded ala his and Charlie's) and so - in the end - did Locke. Don't know if it means anything, but his unwillingness/unableness to form bonds with people at least partly explains why he failed at his last season mission I think. It may also explain why I've always had a hard time warming up to Locke (when he seems to be one of the majority of viewers fav characters) - I watch for the relationships and the connections and how what happens impacts the character's growth (or lack thereof) more so that the "faith vs nature" aspect of Lost.

love the recaps! like your theory about jacob (or someone) possibly visiting malkin and/or thomas before 815. but jacob is about free will/choice and malkin was quite forceful and insistent that claire go to LA on that specific flight. and did you ever think that perhaps malkin meant the "good" people in LA were kate and jack? what he says to claire struck me as interesting on second viewing -- "they're not strangers. they're good people."

I think the (brief) onscreen time between Sayid and Nadia actually works better for their story, since we now see it was doomed from the start. We've seen a lot of Des and Penny together, in real time and in flashbacks, but their story is very intertwined with the rest of the group. Sayid's connection to Nadia was a driving part of his character and was made more poignant by its absence and eventually loss by the fact we never really saw significant time with them together. The torture episode, the reunion and the tragic death - everything else about her has been her reflection on Sayid's life.

It's interesting she popped up in Locke and Charlie's lives, when any other (unknown) character could've done as well. I wonder if there was a purpose, other than to provide more interconnection in all their lives.